Assembly of products having multiple parts and/or components can result in different product builds presenting dimensional variations, i.e., differences in placement, orientation, spacing, etc., of parts and/or components resulting from component manufacturing and product assembly. Dimensional variations affect not only the visual appearance and structural relationship of adjacent parts or components, but can affect the overall characteristics and quality of a product. The study of dimensional variations may be referred to as dimensional variation analysis (DVA).
Although dimensional variations can never be eliminated, particularly with respect to large and complex products such as vehicles, they can be controlled within an expected range. For example, the type of materials used in a part, expected range of dimensions of the part, a manner in which the part is attached to the product structure, and other factors may affect dimensional variations to which the parts may contribute. Accordingly, dimensional variations may be modeled to test product designs so that a product design ultimately used for manufacturing and assembly results in a product with dimensional variations that generally fall within the accepted range.
Unfortunately, mechanisms for visually representing possible dimensional variations are presently lacking.